Chapter 20: The General's Eight-Sided Majesty (I)

Empress Dowager Dou did not abandon Dou Xian, she still let the imperial doctor cure his cold. However, her anger has not subsided, and Dou Xian is still locked in the palace and is not allowed to go out.

Since Dou Jing and Dou Du got the news that their brother was imprisoned in the palace, they have been like ants on a hot pot, and they have entered the palace many times to ask to see the Queen Mother, but the Queen Mother Dou has avoided it and told them that Dou Xian deserves it, and it is already an extra grace to spare his life.

However, Situ Yuan An and Sikong Ren Kui seized this opportunity, and every morning and sunrise, they would kill Dou Xian, which gave the Empress Dowager Dou a headache. I had to find Dou Jing and Dou Du to discuss.

Dou Jingdao, "Queen Mother, although my brother is at fault, he will not die for his crimes, and he will be demoted to his official position." You think about how many things our brothers and sisters have gone through over the years. Although Liu Chang is the queen mother's favorite person, it can't ruin the situation that our brothers and sisters have worked so hard to create! ”

Dou Du also said, "Queen Mother, my brother offered Liu Chang to you at the beginning, I really wanted the Queen Mother to be lonely in your palace, and it was also for the sake of my sister You, but now he is killing the townspeople, but he is afraid that you will trust him too much, and lose the friendship of our brothers!" ”

Empress Dowager Dou sighed, "I didn't want to kill my brother, but this matter is now difficult to clean up, and once the Queen Mother is in power, she can't go back on her word!" ”

Dou Du looked around, and saw that the palace maids and eunuchs were all standing in the distance, so he whispered, "The Queen Mother, there is more than one beautiful man in the world, Liu Chang, if the Queen Mother lets go of the eldest brother, we will find you a better one, so that the Queen Mother is happy, sister, Du Xianghou is dead, no matter how good it is, it is also a dry bone." You've got to look ahead! ”

Empress Dowager Dou's heart moved, and those long-ago ** will spring up in her heart, she looked at Dou Jing, "What do you think?" Now that the three governments have repeatedly tried to execute their brothers, what should we do? ”

Dou Jing stretched out two fingers, "Two ways, the first one, remove the position of the third prince and let those old guys go back to their hometown." ”

Empress Dowager Dou shook her head, "This is not good, among the three dukes, Yuan An, Ren Kui is extremely prestigious, we can't move them." ”

Dou Jing pouted, "I knew that the Queen Mother wouldn't be like this, so there was only one second way!" ”

Seeing that Empress Dowager Dou and Dou Du were both looking at him, he coughed and said, "Empress Dowager, the day before yesterday, didn't the Dianke Division report that the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu's envoy hoped that our dynasty would send a large army to crusade against the Xiongnu?" ”

Empress Dowager Dou's face raised slightly, "Yes, this matter is still under discussion." Geng Bing also wrote to ask for the mourning family, hoping to let him go north to attack the Huns, what do you think? ”

Dou Jing narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "Queen Mother, you can let the eldest brother go out to fight against the Huns, so that the eldest brother's sin can be spared, and the people in the court don't dare to say anything." ”

Empress Dowager Dou was overjoyed in her heart, "This plan is very good, the mourning family will release the elder brother now, and the day after tomorrow will be the morning to discuss this matter." ”

The Xiongnu were divided into the Southern Xiongnu and the Northern Xiongnu, and the Southern Xiongnu relied on the money provided by the Han Dynasty every year, eating good wine and meat every day, plus the pastures given by the Han Dynasty, the horses of the Southern Xiongnu were also fat and strong.

On the contrary, the Northern Xiongnu were in the Western Regions of their great rear controlled by Ban Chao, and there were Wuhuan and Xianbei in the east who were constantly fighting, coupled with the Southern Xiongnu who only recognized money and did not recognize people, and the situation was already very difficult.

In the summer of the eighth year of the founding of the first year, the Northern Xiongnu Sanmu Louzi Daren Jiliusi and others led 38,000 people, brought 20,000 horses, and more than 100,000 cattle and sheep to Wuyuan Sai and surrendered to the Han Dynasty. In the second year of Zhanghe, the leader Che Lizhuo and others defected and defected to the border of the Han Dynasty, with a total of 73 groups of people before and after.

At this time, the power of the Northern Xiongnu was very weak, and the tribes scattered and rebelled, and the Xiongnu completely changed from the stalemate of the Yongping Dynasty to defense, and even could not hold it. So I had to keep migrating and went downhill.

Shan Yu of the Northern Xiongnu was also a very clever man, and when he saw that the matter had come to this, he decided to make peace with the Han Dynasty and open up trade. In the first year of Yuanhe, Beidan Yu sent an envoy to Meng Yun, who was the Taishou of Wuwei at that time, and Meng Yun felt the sincerity of the Northern Xiongnu this time, so he wrote to Emperor Zhang.

Emperor Zhang was very happy when he got the news, so he issued an edict to approve it. But he didn't expect that when the Northern Xiongnu Da and Qu Yimo Zi Wang and others led the merchant group to drive more than 10,000 livestock to the border, ready to trade with the Han Dynasty, the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu unceremoniously sent light cavalry from Shangjun to attack the merchant group.

As you can imagine, the merchant groups were outnumbered, the whole army was wiped out, and the livestock were also plundered. The Northern Xiongnu thought that the Han Dynasty was colluding with the Southern Xiongnu, and scolded the Han Dynasty for not keeping its promises.

In the second year, the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu died of illness, and his son Xuan took office not long after, and took more than 1,000 people to hunt, and the beginning was very smooth, but when they arrived at Zhuo Evil Mountain, the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu heard the voice of another team of cavalry. He thought that it was the Northern Xiongnu who came to attack him, so he immediately ordered his subordinates to rush desperately and defeat the Northern Xiongnu troops at all costs.

At that time, the leader of the Northern Xiongnu, King Wen Yu, was also very surprised, but was suddenly attacked, and had to fight, the two sides fought on the prairie, and soon, the head of the King of Wen Yu of the Northern Xiongnu was cut off by the Southern Xiongnu, and he was defeated.

For the behavior of the Southern Xiongnu who did not ask for instructions in advance and did not report afterwards, the Han Dynasty government was also helpless and powerless.

Soon, the envoy from the Northern Xiongnu came to Wuwei again, and severely reprimanded Wuwei for guarding Meng Yun too much, "I, the Northern Xiongnu, have been ready to reconcile with your Han Dynasty, but the Southern Xiongnu have repeatedly attacked us, and you don't stop it, the previous time robbed the cattle and horses, and this time killed our Wenyu Calf King, what does your Han Dynasty mean?" If there is another war between the two sides, we will also let you Han Dynasty taste the taste of our steel sword. ”

Meng Yun also did not understand the situation, and after pacifying the Xiongnu envoys, he immediately wrote to Emperor Zhang, reported the situation, and suggested that the Northern Xiongnu be pacified and let the Southern Xiongnu return the looted captives and livestock.

This report sparked a heated discussion among the Han government and the opposition.

At the beginning, Taiwei Zheng Hong, Sikong Wulun and Situ Huanyu and other ministers thought that they should not be returned, the reason was very simple, those Northern Xiongnu were all Yidi, often discredited, and greedy enough, if the prisoners were returned, those Huns would also exaggerate their losses and let the Han Dynasty compensate. As soon as this example was opened, the Han Dynasty would suffer losses.

However, Yuan An, the servant at the time, disagreed, saying, "The Northern Xiongnu used to send envoys to ask for peace and relatives, and also returned the captives to the Han Dynasty, which shows that they were afraid of the prestige of the Han Dynasty, rather than breaking the treaty first." Meng Yun guards the frontier as a minister, and he should not be dishonest to Yidi. Letting the captives go back is enough to show the leniency of the Han Dynasty to them, and let the border people recuperate, why not? ”

Yuan An's words are short, the Northern Xiongnu were afraid of the Han Dynasty, so they sent envoys to pay tribute and ask for peace, and the Han Dynasty should not be discredited, as long as the captives were returned, which could show China's leniency, and it could also get peace.

When Situ Huanyu heard Yuan An say this, he changed his position and supported Yuan An.

In this way, the fifth Lun and Zheng Hong hated Yuan An, and the two sides disagreed, and they quarreled in the court, which made Emperor Zhang annoyed. Zheng Hong even loudly angered Heng Yu, "Anyone who claims that the prisoners and livestock should be returned is a villain who is disloyal to the emperor!" ”

Huan Yu also sneered at each other and scolded Zheng Hong: "If you follow your method, the Huns will invade the border next year, you say that I am not loyal to Your Majesty, I think you are the No. 1 traitor, the first villain in the world!" ”

The voices in the court became louder and louder, and Fifth Lun and Dahonglu Wei Biao were all angry and changed their faces. Captain Si Li also wrote to impeach Zheng Hong and others, which caused Zheng Hong and others to be even more dissatisfied, and collectively asked to resign from their official positions and handed in a letter of apology with a ribbon.

Yuan An saw that things had developed to such an extent, and he refused to bow his head and admit defeat, and at the same time asked to resign, and also handed over the seal ribbon to the emperor. Emperor Zhang saw that all the ministers were vying to resign first, and immediately issued an edict to appease the ministers.

He told everyone that "it is necessary to brainstorm, deliberate and decide, be loyal, act more uprightly, and live in harmony with the ministers, which is in line with the etiquette of the court, and silence and suppression of emotions is not a blessing for the court." Jianghai has become the first of all rivers because of its low terrain. The Han Dynasty was slightly wronged, what does it matter! What's more, now between the Han Dynasty and the Northern Xiongnu, the status of the monarch and the minister has been determined, just like a father helping his son. The Northern Xiongnu were obedient and kept their promises, and continued to pay tribute, should we violate our faith and put ourselves in a situation of loss? ”

He also ordered the Liao general and Zhonglang general Pang Fen to redeem the prisoners and livestock looted by the Southern Xiongnu at double the price and return them to the Northern Xiongnu. The Southern Xiongnu had killed the enemy and captured prisoners, and they should be rewarded for their merits, as usual.

On the one hand, he agreed with Yuan An's opinion, and also put forward his own supplementary opinions, in order to allow the Southern Xiongnu to be able to stably hold the Northern Xiongnu, reward the Southern Xiongnu, and let them not have illusions.

After returning the captives, the Northern Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty once again entered a truce, and the Southern Xiongnu did not bother the Northern Xiongnu anymore.

But later, the Xianbei people who were not controlled by the Han Dynasty killed the Northern Xiongnu, the Northern Xiongnu was dying, and this time it was beaten by the Xianbei people, and the Youliu Shan Yu of the Northern Xiongnu was killed in the battle, and the Xianbei people also peeled off the belt of the Xiongnu Shan Yu and brought it back to the tribe.

After this battle, the Northern Xiongnu declined even more. However, with the vacancy of Shan Yu's position, the Northern Xiongnu once again had a great chaos. Fifty-eight tribes including Qu Lanchu were desperate, and with 280,000 men and women, they came to Yunzhong, Wuyuan, Shuofang, and the counties of the northern land, and surrendered to the Han Dynasty.

Soon there was a great famine in the area of the Northern Xiongnu, a large number of people and animals died, and there was a riot inside, and thousands of desperate Northern Xiongnu surrendered to the Southern Xiongnu every year.

The Southern Xiongnu watched their tribe slowly rise, so they had a long-planned plan - to unify the North and South Xiongnu.

He knew that the Han Dynasty only used them as mercenaries to resist the Northern Xiongnu, and he had coveted the areas inhabited by the Northern Xiongnu for a long time. Therefore, he hoped to unify the Xiongnu in the north and south, expand his own troops, and if the time was ripe, it would not be too late to rebel against the Han Dynasty.

With this plan, soon after Emperor He ascended the throne, the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu wrote to the imperial court: "The courtiers have received the favor of the imperial court for generations, and it cannot be calculated. Emperor Xiaozhang had a far-reaching plan and wanted to establish a meritorious career, so he ordered Wuhuan and Xianbei to attack the northern enemy, cut off Shan Yu's head, and attack and destroy their country. Now Xuqu and others, who had just surrendered, went to the ministers themselves and said that in the middle of March last year, when they attacked the Beiyu Wangting, Beidan Yu was severely damaged by the southern army, and they were afraid of Ding Ling and Xianbei, so they fled far away and leaned on the west bank of the Anhou River.

In the first month of this year, Guduhou and others set up Shan Yu's half-brother Xianwang as Shan Yu, and at this time it fell apart and the flesh and blood collapsed. Now the ministers discussed strategies with the kings, Guduhou and the leaders who had just surrendered, and they all said that they should take advantage of the division of the enemy in the north to send troops to fight, defeat the north, complete the south, and merge into one country, so that the Han family will never worry about the north again. ”

The Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu had a very poisonous vision, and he said on the table, "The ministers have always been ignorant and shallow, and the lack of soldiers is not enough to defend the inside and outside." It is hoped that the imperial court will join forces to conquer the north, so that the northern Taishou and the stable Taishou of the northern land will be stationed in the key places, hoping to pacify the north in one fell swoop by virtue of the divine power of the Ming Emperor. The victory or defeat of the minister's country is basically this year. The minister had already ordered all the troops to clean up the soldiers and horses, and by the time of the sacrifice to the gods in September, all of them would assemble on the banks of the Yellow River. I hope Your Majesty will judge it by observing the grief! ”